Scales of War

The Misfits vanquish (survive an encounter with) General Zithruum (Zod) and his army quickly becomes disorganized. The defenders are able to drive back the invaders. While Overlook is significantly damaged in the siege, most of the people and government survived. The city immediately begins rebuilding. The misfits are heralded as heroes and for the next couple weeks have no need to pay for food, lodging, or spirits. The Misfits are invited to join the council of elders at many fancy dinners as a reward. But the origin of Zithruum’s army is still unknown, and there is a frantic quality to the rebuilding as no one knows when the next attack will come.

One day the party is immediately summoned to the council and asked to contact the leader of the Freeriders, Megan Swiftblade. She sent word to the council that she knows who is behind the army that attacked outlook, however as soon as she found out, her entire group came under near constant attack from assassin’s. The Freeriders have gone into hiding and, in order to find her, the council must go to the Green Dragon in Village of Talar and wait to be contacted. The council asks that the Misfits go as their representatives, rescue Megan, and discover who is behind the recent attacks on Overlook.

The misfits set out immediately, b/c the only other jobs in the city are in construction and no one wants to buy a hard hat. After several days travel the group enters the Green Dragon, pays for a room and food, and begin to wait for whatever contact Megan will send them.

After surviving a roving band of plot holes the group finds itself back in Overlook without Rutie or Puck. At the main gate they discover that the city of Overlook is taking a “better safe than slaughtered” philosophy to public works. Significant building is going on along all defenses in the city. The remaining group settles down in a tavern for some much deserved rest and is informed by the tavern keeper that Lavinya, a priestess of Erathis, is looking for their aid. The team quickly senses evil afoot and immediately leaves with the new dwarf in tow (or will that be something else next week?)

Lavinya informs them that her friend Haelyn, another priestess of Erathis, has gone missing. Haelyn has been replaced by Grovald, someone who Lavinya has never heard of before. Lavinya feels stonewalled by the authorities and by other priests and priestesses in the city. The religious leaders are even acting weird, especially Durkik the High priest of Moradin at the Stone Anvil. The Misfits decide to check out Haelyn’s home even though it’s late at night. Upon searching the shrine of Erathis, they are attacked by the new priest who was actually a changeling impersonating a priest.

After interrogating the spirit of Grovald, they learn that he was working for someone named General Zithiruun and reporting to Durkik. The next morning the Misfits are ambushed on their way to the Stone Anvil, the grand temple of Moradin. The Misfits discover that the Stone Anvil is mostly empty of priests. They are all working on the reconstruction of the temple in the nine bells region of the city. When attempting to look at the back parts of the temple they are immediately kicked out by Durkik.

At the Nine-bells temple of Moradin they find significant construction being funded by Murrik Ironfell, who is pushing some sort of grudge against the party. At this point, the group is divided as to what to do next?

Rescue At Rivenroar
• Hobgoblin warband seeking to gain fame and fortune is urged by mysterious “Emissary” to attack town of Brindol.
• Hobgoblin band attacks, stealing relics and kidnappings townsfolk.
• Plan on sacrificing townsfolk to cement undead’s aid at homebase of Castle Rivenroar.

Seige At Bordrin’s Watch
The party respond to a call to arms: an orc invasion of Elsir Vale is imminent. After a meeting with the Council of Overlook the party are sent on a mission to rescue monks from a monastery. All but one are dead. The party is then sent to seal the Nexus in order to prevent the orc army from breaching the defenses and sweeping unhindered into Elsir Vale.

The Shadowrift At Umbraforge
After being targeted by a group of “Lost Ones” the party investigates the instigator of the attacks, Modra. It seems he seeks a key they found in the last adventure. Their investigations lead them to an inn, and from there to a portal to the Shadowfell. Chasing Modra the party find themselves in the military enclave of Umbraforge. After battling Modra in a foundry the party enters Sarshan’s tower, and learns about the arms dealer. Thanks to the foundry exploding the party is able to escape back to Overlook.

_A Shadar-Kai named Niku joins the party as a way to get out of Overlook and avoid Sarshan’s wrath.
Thorn randomly abandons the party without reason._

The Lost Mines of Karak
The party is sent to find lost mines by a wealthy dwarf, Bram Ironfell. It seems the mines are linked to Sarshan in some way. The party travels to the Thornwaste, and is attacked by a rival dwarf clan en route. They reach a village being terrorised by gnolls led by the Warden, whom in turn works for the Queen of the Drylands. Tracking back the party find the queen’s HQ to be the Karak Lode, the fortified mine occupied by monsterous forces. Finding their way to the lower levels the party finds the queen, who guards a portal to the Elemental Chaos.

_Tier, Erevan abandon the party without reason.
Niku refuses to return to Overlook and leaves the party.
Brandis and Rutilius recruit two new members who die in their first fight.
Brandis and Rutilius recruit four more members:
1. Benn
2. Tabri
3. Puck
4. Corrin_

Den of The Destroyer
After freeing a messenger from the Lost Ones and meeting a bounty hunter called Gilgathorn the party is called back to Brindol. There the platinum sword they recovered earlier (RaR) speaks to them: they must take the sword to an abandoned githzerai fortress, defeat the gnolls that infest the place and perform a restoration ritual to free the sword’s occupant. The partry is attacked by mercenaries and joined once more by Gilgathorn, who is waiting for the best moment to stab them in the back. Finding the fortress they battle Fangren and his pack, and repurpose a portal to the Elemental Chaos to restore Amyria. The party learn that Sarshan is behind the problem with the gnolls and also that he was the “emissary” who trick the hobgoblins into attacking Brindol (in the first adventure).

Leader of The Lost Ones
The party is captured outside in an ambush outside of Overlook, and are brought before the leader of the Lost Ones guild. To everyone surprise, the leader is an adult black dragon that secretly controls the guild from deep within the sewers below Overlook. Only a small few know the truth about this, and the ordinary guild members themselves think the head is a human. Therefore, most of the force which captured the party do not enter the dragon’s lair with the party. The party manages to slay the dragon, steal his gold, and find their way back out to Shantytown.

The party is shocked when their leader Rutilius abandons the party without reason.The new guy Puck also leaves, something about “Black Dragons? Screw this!”

It looks like Sarshan is supplying these guys with weapons. I hate shadowy swords. They hurt. Especially being trapped in a room with myself and 3 angry gnolls wielding them. But what could be the advantage of using a tribe of wannabe evildoers who couldn’t even keep 5 people outside of an actively defended fortress? At least we should be able to remove this population as a threat to the people of Brindol, and keep them from summoning Yingeou, or YuppyGoul, or whatever the name is. And now onto more mayham and pillaging.

Ok, so those 2 newbies didn’t pan out. At least they had enough money on them so that I don’t have to raid the group funds to resurrect them. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have to resurrect anyone if everyone didn’t just disappear. Why can’t I keep them together? Doesn’t everyone realize that we’re much stronger together? How much good we could do? If Thorn, Tier, and Everean were here, I’d be pushing to take out the lost one’s once and for all. If they are willing to torture poor Alice just because she met us before, then they need to be stopped immediately. Unfortunately, I’d probably have to motivate Everan and Nikku (I’d even be happy if he stayed with us, despite the creepy aura he gave off) by focusing on revenge, but it would be worth it to help the people of outlook.

Unfortunately, we have to run away with our tails between our legs, once I get Brandis to sober up. I hope we find some worth additions to the group soon, otherwise, we won’t last much longer.

Ok, we’ve found the dwarven fortress which is the entrance to the mines. I suppose we could head back to Overlook now and report. The entrance seems to be infested with evil creatures though. Perhaps we should take the time to clear them out first and actually check out the mines a bit.

The monotony of the desert is draining. I keep telling myself that fate is pulling us in this direction, but it just seems like such a letdown after the past week. We’re doing what, beating up a few guards, killing a few harpies, and getting sand in places that I didn’t remember I had places for what? To find a lost mine. How do you lose a mine anyway? Maybe we should just turn back and go find an orphanage to sponsor or something. This really doesn’t seem like it’s worth it.

So I’ve escaped Sarshan’s clutches once again; and in doing, my new companions and I inadvertently destroyed the portal to his Overlook operations. Of course it was because I led them through the portal that the specters followed. Therefore I am the one most directly responsible for the portal’s destruction. Sarshan will be out for vengeance indeed.

I have decided to join the group of adventurers who followed me back to Overlook. We’ve taken on a quest to find some dwarven mines which have been lost for some time. A map has given a hint to its location. I think that getting out of Overlook right now is a wise move, since Sarshan will be looking for me there.

We’ve left Overlook and begun our travel toward the desert. While entering a small human settlement, we found them in need of our help. A group of bandits, I presume, were in the process of harassing and extorting what little they have here. The makeup of the bandits is a concern though. They were a group of satyrs led by a gnoll. Not the typical bandit. We’ll have to find out more from the residents. Such inquiries tend to distract from a quest however. Hopefully we’ve dealt with the problem already.

So everything went fuzzy for a while and by the time my head clears, I find that Sarshan got away, but at least we’ve stopped his plans for inter-planal domination. After some much penance and needed rest the only thing that presents itself is a mercenary job to find some lost mine. I believe this is fate’s way of pulling us along to something greater. And at least I think there will be fewer chances for Everan to get in trouble if we at least get out of the city. That and I think Brandis is getting restless without anything to smash.

Ok, so now we’re being attacked by Dwarfs who want the riches for themselves. I really was hoping that all peoples of the vale could pull together knowing that outside forces are attacking, but greed is apparently more powerful than self-preservation through cooperation.

I just couldn’t stand by while that gnoll was pummeling the villager. He’s stabilized now, but the same can’t be said for the gnoll’s friends. Apparently they were were some sort of tax collectors. Of course their behavior seemed more like a collection of protection money. We’ll have to poke around here for a while to see if we can help out the people somehow.